I am well aware of how long its been, and if its been too long for those who've enjoyed this story to continue to read it, I accept that. I never once planned on discontinuing this story, or any of my Multi-chaps for that matter. Life just hits you with a hammer and you find yourself questioning everything and seeking answers to said questions by branching out. Branch out I did, joining new fandoms and visiting old ones. Albeit what it boils down to is that this is my most viewed story, and the most requested. Guilt gets ya, even if its slow working.
Without further ado, here is the long awaited update of Avatar the Last Airbender; The Spirit in the Iceberg -
The air swirled in thickened locks of heat, before giving way to devouring orange flames, narrowly flying past the Avatar's tattooed head and illuminating his surprised features. Sweat glistened on his skin, and the moisture closest to the fire dissolved into thin rivers of albescent steam. Aang inwardly swore, his upward facing palms guiding the eager wind beneath him, giving his dodge a needed boost.
How the Firebenders found him, he wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to lose here. He had made far too many promises to the people he loved.
Hands balled oxygen gasses and blasted them forward, doing little offensively other than to disorient the armored Firebender, but effectively throwing the lithe boy out of striking range. Landing with his legs bent and spread apart, Aang didn't hesitate reading himself to run. His friends knew nothing of the ambush.
As he ran the wind solidified behind his trained, bare feet, and they boosted his speed so that his form was obscured behind rising dust clouds. Firebenders yells faded behind him and the trees, but the urgency in their voices gave Aang confidence on whether or not he'd be followed.
In his wizened opinion, a fight was most definitely better left avoided when losing wasn't an option.
Merida paused in her dull trudging, previously raised left foot audibly crushing a dying leaf. Her fiery locks glinted as she slowly spun around, fine hairs rising on the back of her neck.
Something was amiss.
Albeit before she could investigate, a groaning Sokka dragged his tired feet past her, posture slouched and hands gripping his pack straps for false support. "So...tired.." She didn't have time to react before Jack showed his chipper face, staff tossed over his shoulders with sly ease. He winked at her, curled mouth opening to say, "Don't lag behind Princess, Boss ma'am Katara won't be happy." After only a week of companionship, Jack had already giving the lot of them nicknames, whether they appreciated it or not. Katara's mother-ly nature was received as being bossy, and Merida's heritage was taken into his humorous consideration.
The wind picked up, sweeping the spirit off his feet and into the spinning air. Thick locks of her auburn hair flew behind her, but Merida simply rolled her eyes and continued with her hiking. It was difficult for Appa to carry so many people, and the bison's unfortunate lack of strength left the group with no other choice but travel on foot.
She both hated it and loved it.
The rich, earthy smells of the forest tickling her rounded nose, the way the light broke through the leaves. She missed the forest dearly, and enjoyed this, truly. Albeit the group was painfully at risk on foot. Fire nation camps littered the outskirts of the Earth kingdom forests, and when airborne it was simple to spot them and avoid trouble. They couldn't do that on foot. Not to mention very few of them knew how to navigate the woods, Sokka quizzically scanning maps with the aid of 'all knowing' Hiccup.
Jack continued to rise and descend, the wind tossing him about like that of the falling leaves, reckless grace an adorned cloak. That was another oddity of his. The wind was constantly bringing him stolen cloaks; some exotic and exciting, others dull and old. All he turned down, disliking the material or style. She didn't care whether he found the right one or not, because she hated the chills he sent through her and the primal warnings that argued against him. The entire time he had traveled with them, he only eaten once.
Maybe it was true that he was a spirit, but the Gaang had seen spirits before, none seeming as human as he. She recalled his earlier words, unconsciously slowing her pace, fair brows furrowed. "Starlight used to run through my veins..."
She gazed up at the progressively thinning tree branches, as though searching for the stars hidden behind the cerulean curtain nightfall draws.
"Starlight.." She murmured, blue eyes narrowed as she mused.
Screams erupted from ahead, and Merida was startled out of her thoughts as blasts of fire illuminated her friends panicking forms.
Rapunzel was the first to strike back, wrists crossing in a smooth, sliding transition as deep, orange sparks became albescent. She then slid her feet counter clockwise beneath her, stomping with ferocity as her fists shot a blast of fire three times smaller as the oncoming blasts. Albeit her pale yellow flames were far hotter. She by all blood rights was a warrior of the sun, and as her blonde braid swayed behind her bending form, red garments dancing with every subtle movement, she became the sun's gift to mortals. Their messiah.
Katara, whom happened to also stand in direct line of fire, attempted to fall back, seeing as how simple drinking water was her only weapon. Albeit the enemy's numbers proved to be too great, and she found herself dodging and freezing for her life, cursing breathlessly as the tip of her swinging water-tribe dress caught fire.
Sokka and Hiccup rushed to the girls aid as Merida strung her bow, hating herself for not noticing all the signs. This time of year bird song should be ringing throughout the forest, not dead silent as it was moments before the attack.
The water-tribesmen lifted his boomerang with a battle cry, and one powerful throw sent it arcing through the air, slicing the wind with a high whistle. Hiccup drew his dagger, the small weapon glinting dangerously in the firelight, but he knew that his contribution to the group didn't come in the form of fighting. Intellect was his strong suit.
Never the less, as arrows began to whizz past him, Haddock ground his teeth and buried his nervousness.
He had to help his friends.
The brunet rushed forward, battle cry on his lips and dagger raised when a soldier's dark gaze met his, flames illuminating his white, skull like mask menacingly. Within the deep shadows below his mask, dark, beetle like eyes glinted. The man seemed to find a sort of sadistic humor in Hiccup's small but sturdy dagger, and he lifted his muscled arms into a bending stance.
A familiar voice cried out in denial, and the fire bender was tackled to the forest floor by a white and brown blur. Jack rolled smoothly to his feet, staff still directed towards the disoriented soldier. Eyes flicked from the fallen man to Hiccup, concern coloring the normally indifferent orbs. The fire bender prepared a blast aimed at the pair, but a welcome whale bone boomerang audibly hit the back of his helmet and knocked him out.
Merida's terrified scream pierced the air and drew everyone's attention, a tan, muscular bender who didn't adorn fire navy armor stood before her. He was clearly a mercenary, and by being such his morals had long since dwindled down to nothing. He raised his club to strike her fallen form once more, only to cry out chokingly as his hand froze.
Katara's determined stare met his angered one.
He growled an animalistic growl, then slammed his hand against a tree so hard that the thick bark cracked and a low, terror filling groan pierced the cooling air. Steam rolled off his bare shoulders, and Katara was forced to take several steps back as the entire trunk collapsed, the splintering wood ripping its way audibly into the forest. His hand now freed, the man cried out again, charging at the blue adorned female with the stance like that of a rhino, dust and leaves billowing up in clouds around his large frame.
However, he had little control, and Katara spun away, barely dodging the thick, wildly swinging braid which humorously resembled her own. The beast of a man stopped his wild charge, his right side hitting the side of a tree with enough force to actually tear most of its bark off. He didn't seem to be able to feel pain, and Katara looked around for aid from her friends, who all seemed occupied having their own battles. Where was Aang when you needed him?
The fire mercenary jerked as arrows pierced his skin, several arcing through the air and landing embedded within his hide like flesh. He roared with rage, beady eyes scanning for the perpetrator of his pain, thin trails of sweat mixed with blood sliding through the oily grime covering his body. He spotted her some distance away, Merida's red hair grabbing his attention immediately, her shaking form crouching low to the ground. Blood soaked through her sleeve, and the wound from his club looked far too serious to be stretched through the efforts of archery. He bent and began to charge, only to be stopped by water quickly freezing around his feet. The mercenary huffed, the air temperature now low enough for hot puffs of air to cloud his vision, which was still locked onto the wild mane of orange, dancing like flames.
While the two females were battling the brute, the fire navy gained ground, their stances fierce and unshakable, nothing like the dancing forms of Rapunzel's stances. Hiccup struggled with his new attacker, doing hardly anything other than dodge. Sokka had dropped his boomerang somewhere during the progressing fight, and he now fought with a small mace-like club of his own, swinging it wildly only to be kicked fiercely in the stomach.
Jack swooped in low overhead, landing in the middle of the main group of Firebenders and coating them with frost. They ignored it, lighting flames in their gloved hands and ordering him to stop his attack.
The look in Jack's eyes startled all who paid attention, for their was a twinkling light from a smirk which held no true happiness within it. "I find it very amusing that mere mortals like yourself think to harm me." He said, dark intentions dripping thickly off his tone. The delicate seeming moisture that coated their armor quickly spread and grew into hoar frost, chilling the men to their bones and sending several, whose screams pierced the sharpest, to their knees. It was dangerous yet beautiful, the small, jagged points coating the men so thickly that they resembled abominable snowmen.
Other, more powerful, Firebenders attempted to flash the ice back with their extreme body temperature. But even their inner heat increased through bending couldn't stop the spirits powerful wintery attack. Their resistance was met with Jack's angry words, "I won't let you harm my friends!" His hands skillfully arcing down his staff into the frozen ground, cracking it jaggedly and blasting back the fire benders with a biting, freezing wind. His attack froze all the enemies at once, even the invincible seeming mercenary became nothing but an ice statue, angered expression still twisting his features.
The others just watched as Jack slouched against his staff, knees shaking under his own weight, as he had just drained his tiny pool of remaining, pure spirit energy.
All to protect them.
Sokka hesitated only for an instant, before recovering first and tieing up the downed benders. He seemed the most willing to accept what had just happened, or maybe he wasn't paying attention at all. He likely just knew what had to be done, and decided to do so before freaking out. They couldn't let the enemy recover. Not so soon after their battle.